One of those votes was from their own representative Geoff Thompson meaning England's 15.0 million ($23.43 million), two-year campaign to stage the 2018 tournament, 52 years after they last staged it in 1966, gained just one additional vote.

That vote was likely to have been cast by declared supporter Junji Ogura of Japan, while other votes promised to England clearly went elsewhere with Russia emerging triumphant.

Thompson, trying to explain the huge snub, struggled to contain his shock, "I cannot believe what has happened, and I am naturally very, very disappointed.

"The votes that were promised clearly didn't materialise. I never imagined we would go out in the first round," he added.

Image: David Beckham and other members of England's bidding team react during the FIFA World Cup 2018 bid in ZurichPhotographs: Reuters

Technical report

The bid was rated as the strongest by FIFA's technical inspection team and also finished ahead of competitors Russia, Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium in an independent economic report on projected revenue.

But those points were ignored by FIFA's top table, which means the motherland of the game cannot hope to stage the finals again until 2026 at the earliest.

The wounds from this setback may just have healed by then.

After FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced Russia would stage the finals, and the full story of England's defeat began to emerge, there was little doubt about what undermined it.

An investigation by the Sunday Times that led to two FIFA executive committee members being suspended after allegations they offered to sell their votes for cash was compounded by a BBC documentary, which made further allegations of corruption.

As if those were not big enough obstacles for the bid to overcome, crowd trouble at a League Cup tie in Birmingham on Wednesday night between local rivals Birmingham City and Aston Villa further damaged the bid's credibility.

Image: Birmingham City fans clash with the police on the pitch after team won their English League Cup soccer match against Aston Villa